Items tagged with ethereum
Hold onto your wallet. Researchers at ESET have discovered the first known instance of a relatively new strain of cryptocurrency-stealing malware, called a "clipper", on the Google Play Store. They reported their findings to the Play Store's security team on February 1st, who quickly took down the offending application. The attack uses a remarkably simple trick to part users with their digital funds. Cryptocurrency values are assigned to a long, unique string of characters known as a wallet. In order to make a transaction, a sender typically needs to enter the recipient's wallet address in their...
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If you've invested heavily in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum over the past year, you probably need a stiff drink right about now. The cryptocurrency "boom" is no more, and values are heading south, much to the chagrin of crypto miners that thought mining with off-the-shelf [and custom] hardware would bring them digital fortunes. Take Bitcoin, for example; the cryptocurrency fell to as little as $5,900 in the past 24 hours before rebounding to just over 6,000 as of this writing. As recently as May, Bitcoin was trading at around $10,000 and in late 2017, it was topping $19,000....
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MyEtherWallet confirmed on Twitter that hackers hijacked its Domain Name System (DNS) servers and redirected users to a phishing site in Russia. By obtaining private keys from affected users, the hackers reportedly were able to swipe around 215 Ethereum coins (ETH) worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $150,000. The attack lasted for several hours, and one user in particular lost more than 85 ETH worth almost $60,000. In the Twitter post, MyEtherWallet emphasized that the security breach did not take place on its side of the equation, and that it's currently in the process of verifying exactly...
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When it comes to cryptocurrency mining, many small- and large-scale outfits have cornered the GPU market, buying up large quantities of current generation AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards. Gamers have especially been hit hard by miners, as even mainstream graphics cards that should be heading towards the bargain bin at this stage in their lifecycle are priced above MSRP. However, it looks as though Intel might have come up with a solution for a way to more efficiently mine for cryptocurrency instead of using hardware that was originally designed for an unrelated task. Intel's patent was filed on September...
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Ethereum has taken a swift kick to the blockchain after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it has "dozens" of investigations open in the cryptocurrency space associated with ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings). The announcement of the investigations was made by an agency official on March 15. The confirmation that the investigations have been opened comes after SEC Enforcement Division co-Director Stephanie Avakian announced in February that subpoenas had been sent to firms that were believed to have broken securities laws. SEC scrutiny of ICOs (initial coin offerings) has grown...
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Plattsburgh, New York is city that has just over 30,000 residents, and those citizens recently saw their power bills unexpectedly increase due to a problem that is starting to affect more people in the United States. We're talking about cryptocurrency mining, of course. Plattsburgh has placed an 18-month ban on new commercial cryptocurrency mining operations after the city was forced to buy additional power to keep up with demand, in turn causing everyone's rates to go up. For gamers, the rise in cryptocurrency mining means that the hot graphics cards that we'd like to get our hands are hard to...
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Google is taking a stand against advertisements on the internet that promote cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency exchanges/wallets/trading advice and/or initial coin offerings (ICO). The tech giant says that it will no longer serve ads through its platforms for these products and services starting in June 2018. "We don't have a crystal ball to know where the future is going to go with cryptocurrencies, but we've seen enough consumer harm or potential for consumer harm that it's an area that we want to approach with extreme caution," said Scott Spencer, Google's Director of Sustainable Ads, in an interview...
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There are plenty of uncertainties and grey areas currently lurking around the cryptocurrency market. From wild fluctuations in valuations, to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin being used on the black market, to government institutions that are looking to get in on a piece of the action, we're still in the "Wild Wild West" days and far from mainstream penetration. Image Source: Flickr via Sebastian Vital With that in mind, Bill Gates gave his thoughts on cryptocurrencies when asked in a reddit "Ask Me Anything" session that was held on Tuesday. To put it bluntly, he is not a fan... at all. Gates stated:...
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Last November a hacker going by the name "DevOps199" found and exploited a flaw in the code for a subset of Ethereum wallets. That user was able to exploit teh vulnerability and take ownership of an Ethereum code library known as a smart contact. Once the hacker owned that smart contract, it was destroyed leaving about $150 million of Ethereum sitting in users' wallets inaccessible. Researchers have now found a new approach that will find vulnerabilities in smart contracts such as the one exploited last year and patch it before a nefarious user could take advantage of the situation. The researchers...
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Atari has just announced something that will surprise all the gamers out there who grew up on its consoles and games. The company made a big unveil today and while it's not a new console or game, Atari will actually be minting its own new type of cryptocurrency. The new altcoin type will be called "Atari Token" and no, it isn’t trying to take on Bitcoin. Atari Token won't be worth real money apparently, however, it will be used on a new digital entertainment platform to buy content like video games, music, and movies. The deal was inked by Atari SA, the French firm now holding all Atari...
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The effect that cryptocurrency mining has had on the graphics card market has been so extreme, very few people could have predicted it. GPUs that were as easy to purchase as a gallon of milk became as hard to find as the hottest deal at Best Buy on Black Friday. In addition to the rarity, inflated pricing has been a real issue as well, with many GPUs costing twice as much (or more) than their intended MSRP. A $649 GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, for example, can currently be had as "cheap" as $900, and that's a relative bargain compared to some of the other pricing we've seen. It's not hard to find the same...
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When AMD announced its earnings last week, the company made it a point to indicate that it would boost capacity in order to address the GPU supply strain caused by booming cryptocurrency mining demand. Yesterday, it was NVIDIA's turn to release earnings -- which it knocked out of the park, by the way -- and it too is looking to address GPU supply problems. NVIDIA CEO and founder Jen-Hsun Huang during his company's earnings call brought attention to the woes gamers (and cryptocurrency miners) are facing when attempting to purchase a Pascal-based graphics cards these days. "We're working really hard...
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If you need any more evidence that cryptocurrency mining is hitting primetime, look no further than this latest report that Samsung is looking into get in on the action. Samsung is reportedly producing application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for Chinese customers that will be use for Bitcoin mining. The initial report, which comes courtesy of a South Korean publication, cites Samsung officials as the source for this information. The chips allegedly completed the development phase late last year and entered production earlier this month. Samsung already confirmed today during its Q4 earrings...
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Update, 2/5/2018: We have a new article posted detailing CyptoNote (Monero) mining performance with AMD's Threadripper processor with a CPU-optimized algorithm, alongside a handful of other X86 processors and a powerful GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GPU. Update, 9/15/2017: We've updated our Ethereum mining benchmark numbers in this article to include AMD's recently released Radeon RX Vega graphics cards. Head here for that updated data or journey on for the full guide. Cryptocurrency mining is a big buzz topic in technology these days. And why not? Utilizing your computer to digitally mine what...
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